Pollyanna

//ˌpɒliˈænə// name, noun, slang

name, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    One who is persistently cheerful and optimistic, even when given cause not to be so.

    "You call her an optimist, but I call her an obnoxious Pollyanna."

  2. 2
    A secret Santa gift exchange. Mid-Atlantic, Pennsylvania, Southeastern, US, colloquial
  3. 3
    Alternative form of Pollyanna. alt-of, alternative
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A female given name from Hebrew derived from Polly and Anna; rare in the real world.

    "Pollyanna Pocket was small, with long floppy ears and a tail that coiled upwards in a little ringlet. She was a bouncy, happy young dog, who frolicked all day"

Synonyms

All synonyms
aspirantaspirerchiliastdaydreamerhopefulhopeless

Example

More examples

"I think Mary is a bit of a Pollyanna."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Polly + Anna.

Etymology 2

From the name of the protagonist in the 1913 novel Pollyanna, by Eleanor Porter.

Related phrases

Pollyanna creeppolly and annasecret santa

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.